Content Description

The collection includes original manuscript scores for music composed for various radio and television programs, including This Is Your FBI, The Radio Reader's Digest, The Guns of Will Sonnett, Daniel Boone, and O'Hara: Treasury Agent.

"This Is Your FBI was an important and popular documentary-type dramatic radio program that was on the air weekly from 1945 to 1952. It was sponsored by the Equitable Life Assurance Society. The stories were based on actual reports from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (there was another similar program on the air, but it was largely fictional). Every script was approved by a representative of the Bureau.

"Some of the most well-known actors and actresses of the time appeared on the program, largely because of its prestige. Such names as Richard Widmark, Jack Lemmon, Jeff Chandler, Frank Lovejoy, Tom Brown, and many others appeared several times in the cast. Even the Hon. George Murphy, at that time still pursuing his acting career, narrated one of the most famous broadcasts, that is, the one having to do with the uncovering of the atomic spy ring.

"Fred Steiner composed and conducted all the music for these programs until production ceased in 1952. The shows first originated in New York from 1945 to 1947, then moved to the American Broadcasting Company studios in Hollywood. The programs were conceived and directed by Mr. Jerry Devine, who also wrote many of the scripts."

(Fred Steiner, December 1969)

The This Is Your FBI series (boxes 1 through 12) contains over 700 numbered scores of background music for the radio program, 1949-1952. The scores are untitled, since titles were infrequently used in radio background music. They are filed by serial number.

For The Radio Reader's Digest (boxes 12 and 13), approximately 60 orchestral scores and arrangements are included. These date from July to September 1945. The music was written in collaboration with Nathan Van Cleave. With a few exceptions, the scores are not titled. The scores with titles are: #833, "Dixie;" #856, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home;" #882, "I'll Be Seeing You;" #897, "Mail Call'" #898, "Faint-Hearted Men;" and #900, "This is the Army, Mr. Jones."

The Guns of Will Sonnett was a television series "produced by Aaron Spelling Productions from August 1967 to February 1969 with a hiatus during the summer of 1968. The series starred Walter Brennan and was released on the American Broadcasting Company television network. With the exception of the first three episodes, all the music for the series was composed and conducted by Fred Steiner." (Fred Steiner, September 1971.)

The Guns of Will Sonnett series (14/1-17/4; 18/8-21/12) series contains orchestral scores. They are arranged by episode number. The scores are titled, but the titles have not been listed in this inventory.

The remainder or the collection consists of sketches and orchestral scores for various radio and television programs, such as Steel Horizons, Kraft Mystery Theater, Daniel Boone, O'Hara: Treasury Agent, Bullwinkle Show, Cain's Hundred, Hogan's Heroes, Perry Mason, and The Untouchables.

Box 34 contains reel-to-reel tapes of music for various episodes of O'Hara: Treasury Agent and The Guns of Will Sonnett.